The Lakers are no strangers to internal and external distractions are the closest thing to a nuisance. The Nuggets live rent-free in the Lakers’ minds, which is actually a lucky break for two reasons. For one, because the cost of living in Los Angeles is out of hand, and secondly this isn’t really a rivalry. Once again, the Nuggets are so uninteresting to casuals that there’s been a concerted effort by the lamestream sports media to insert L.A. into Denver’s moment in the sun.
The roots of this verbal hostilities date back to Conference Finals when every Lakers adjustment after a loss was portrayed as a brilliant move. Denver felt some type of way about getting squeezed out of the attention economy and it showed. Michael Malone was introduced at Denver’s championship parade as the Lakers daddy, even though they’d just beaten the Miami Heat in the Finals.
The Lakers took notice. Darvin Ham responded by saying, “God bless his soul,” Ham said. “This s— ain’t over. God bless his soul.”LeBron announced he was irked on IG. When asked about it this month, Malone feigned ignorance instead of egging it on. I hate when a juicy storyline gets snuffed out so abruptly. The Denver Nuggets must have been assigned the writer’s of some artsy fartsy Best Picture nominee where the plot is a slow painful burn before the average viewer receives a payoff.
This ostensible rivalry should end just like Winning Time did, with Los Angeles getting humbled. The Lakers got swept better than most teams do. But LeBron is a year older, and unless Anthony Davis turns into Karl-Anthony Towns behind the arc as well, they are merely a pebble rattling around in the Nuggets gears.
